Divine Discipline

43:56 There's a life lesson that God pressed on me in devotion this week that I want to share with you in hopes that it will be beneficial in your walk with the Lord. I'm going to invite you this morning to hear a reading of the word of God from the book of Hebrews, way in the back of your New Testament, and we ask those who are physically able to stand with us for the reading and the hearing and the reverence of Hebrews chapter 12, beginning in verse number four as I read from the new revised standard version of God's holy word. Today you'll want to keep your Bibles, your apps, and your pages open. There's some things I want to share that hopefully you'll find worthy of writing down. Hebrews chapter 12 beginning

45:52 This is the word of God for the people of God. You may be seated. The one Sunday you wish you didn't come to church. I want to talk to you very quickly about divine discipline. Divine discipline. This past week, I had the great high honor of being invited to Las Vegas for the 72nd International Boulay Gathering of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated. I saw you there, Velma. It was a great gathering. And on my way back from Las Vegas, on the flight, I got on the plane, and sitting next to me on the aisle was a big mama. Her name was Miss Williams, but I know somebody's big mama when I see her. We sat down on the plane, we began talking, and behind us was a mother of another ethnicity with a four-year-old daughter named Emily.

46:55 Now you may be wondering how I know her name. Because for the entire flight, all we kept hearing was, Emily, stop that. She took her doll and was banging it against the window. Emily, stop that. She took her table tray and was flipping it up and down, only to hear her mother say, Emily, stop that. She took off her seatbelt and began jumping on the chair only for her mother to say, Emily, stop that. She put her feet on the back of my chair and start kicking only for her mother to say, Emily, stop that. At some point she was speaking loudly and you heard her mother say, Emily, lower your voice. To which Emily said, you shut up.

47:50 And her mother responded, Emily, that's not nice. Say you're sorry. That's when Big Mama stood up. Big mama turned around and hoped she said, do you need help with Emily? When Big Mama sat down, she looked at me and said, that woman's going to have problems because what you won't correct, you can never control. And you and I know the only thing more disheartening than an undisciplined child is a parent who won't do anything about it.

48:51 Have you ever wanted to help somebody out with their child? Girl give them to me for five minutes. If there's a little big mama in you that just said amen, there might be a little Emily in you that's about to say ouch.

49:12 Because the writer of Hebrews reminds us in chapter 12 that the same way parents discipline their children, God has to discipline us. listen to what the writer says that endure the discipline of the Lord because God is loving you whoever the Lord loves the Lord chastens the Lord disciplines the Lord corrects and he does it like a parent and if you are not disciplined by God you are not really a child of God because what child do you know doesn't need disciplining they disciplined us as they thought it was good but when God disciplines us, when God chastens us, when God punishes us, when God corrects us, it is for our good that we may participate in his holiness, that we may bear the fruit of righteousness. Y'all, I came by to tell you, we serve a God who knows how to discipline his children. Now, what we don't like is what the writer says at the end, and discipline doesn't feel good. Discipline doesn't tickle you. Discipline doesn't make you shout. Discipline doesn't make you feel good. But I want you to know that everything that doesn't feel good is not discipline. Everything that you struggle with is not the hand of God at work on you.

50:36 Every bad thing that happens to you is not God trying to tighten you up. Some of the things we go through is just suffering. I know you may not want to hear this, but we live in a fallen world. We live in a toxic culture. We live in a sinful society. We live in a world that has been historically damaged and on an earth that has been generationally abused. We are surrounded by those who lust and hunger for violence and for war. Our world is dominated by greed and selfishness, generational insensitivity and inhumanity. We are in the midst of a culture that is perverse and perverted, that is cruel and is consuming. And you want to know why bad things happen to good people? Because bad things happen.

51:31 Bad things happen because we don't live in a perfect world. We live in a world where God says it rains on the just and it rains on the unjust. David reflected on that in Psalm 51 when he said, I was born in iniquity and I was shapen in sin. I'm born into a broken world. I'm born into a toxic world. I'm born into a hateful world and bad things happen. You'll hear that in the book of Ecclesiastes if you ever read it. The book of Ecclesiastes, which we believe is written by Solomon, is a depressed Solomon who says, I've lived long enough now to find out there's no formula to this thing. Bad things happen to bad people. Bad things happen to good people. Good things happen to good people. And good things happen to bad people. It's just the way of the world that bad things happen.

52:27 And there's a difference between suffering and discipline. And sometimes we suffer. And one of the things you've got to be careful of doing is assuming that everyone's suffering is suffering because of something they brought on themselves. Every storm is not self-inflicted. Every pain is not a result of a bad decision I made. Matter of fact, go home and read John chapter 9. Jesus runs upon a boy who's blind from birth. And the disciples go to him and said, who messed up, him or his parents? Jesus said, neither. These things just happen. We suffer because we don't live in a perfect world. But sometimes the things that happen to us is not suffering, it's Satan. Let the church say Satan.

53:20 I know this ain't going to grab you because you're educated. You've got degrees on the wall. You went to an HBCU. You've got a six-figure government job with a pension. So you're not Pentecostal. You're not apostolic. You don't believe in all that Holy Ghost, devil, demon, all that kind of stuff. But let me tell you the truth of the matter. If you are a born-again child of God, you have an eternal enemy that always has his eyes set on you. We are always under demonic attack. The Bible says in Ephesians 6, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and the rulers of wickedness in the high places. 1 John 1 reminds us that we have an enemy like the roaring lion who's looking for somebody to devour. Jesus told us in John 10 that the enemy comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy. That we've got an enemy who's always got his eyes set on you. And the same Satan who told God in the book of Job, I'm just looking for some folk to mess with.

54:20 The same Satan who went to Jesus and said, can I bother Peter for a little bit? is the same Satan that got his eyes set on you. And hear me, beloved, Satan is not trying to kill you. I know you hear that. It sounds Pentecostal. Satan is not after your life. Satan is after your faith. when Satan wants to get in Job, God says, you can't have his life. Satan says, I ain't worried about his life. His life I ain't after. I'm after his faith. I want to bring some things in this world that make him give up on you. I want him to walk away from faith. I want him to put his Bible down. I want him to no longer come to church. I want him to no longer praise God. and the enemy's attack on you is not to kill you, but to get you to give up on God because he gets more from your abandoned faith than your death.

55:16 that's why when Jesus is talking to Peter and he tells him Satan has asked for you Jesus says to Peter and I pray that your faith not fail because it's your faith that the enemy is attacking sometimes we just suffer sometimes it's Satan sometimes it's sin sometimes the bad things that happen to us are because we made some decisions that put us outside of the will of God. I knew y'all was going to get quiet up there, but the truth be told, ain't no need in blaming the devil or God for some of the stuff that's going on in your life. You got in that position because you made a decision that you knew was contrary to the will of God. And every time we sin, there's a price to pay.

56:12 Hear me, family? sin always has a price. When Paul's teaching us about sin in Romans 6, he says the wages of sin is death. He reminds us that there's a wage, there's a penalty, there's a price you pay every time you step outside of the will of God. And in case you don't know this, sin always costs you more than it advertises.

56:39 Sin always looks cheaper until you pick it up off the shelf. Can I push it? And you're not the only one who pays. Your family can pay for it. Your children pay for it. The organizations you belong to pay for it. Innocent people sometimes pay for our bad decisions. If a woman is hit by a drunk driver, she didn't do anything. that driver made a decision to get drunk and get behind the wheel, and now she's paying for his bad decision.

57:18 And that typically is when divine discipline kicks in, when the corrective hand of God begins to touch you, when God sees you going off track and will use a storm wind to blow you back in the right direction, when God orchestrates something that's meant to change your behavior, when God releases you into something that puts you back on your knees and puts you back in the sanctuary every weekend to worship, when God sees that you are moving in the wrong direction, God has a way of disciplining you to come back to what God has in store. I knew you wouldn't shout right here, but the truth be told, God loves you too much to leave you in sin. And contrary to contemporary Christianity, God's got more than grace, God's got more than favor, God's got more than mercy, and God's got more than abundance to get you right.

58:16 God has more than grace to groom you. God has more than favor to fix you. God has more than mercy to mold you. I come by to tell you about a God who knows how to use a storm the right way, a God who knows how to put a thorn in your flesh, a God who knows how to bring some enemies around you, A God who knows how to let some bad things land in your lap to get you right back with God. And somebody today, if the truth be told, the only reason you're back in church, the only reason you gave your life back to the Lord is because God had to let some stuff land in your life to get you in the place where you came back to where God wanted you to be. Is there anybody here who is honest enough to admit that God had to discipline you? God had to correct you. God had to let some stuff go down to get you right.

59:12 That's what Hebrews says. He disciplines us. And let me give you three quick things about the discipline of the Lord to encourage you not to give up on God. Number one, the discipline of God is inevitable. Let the church say inevitable. Here's what the writer says. If you're a child of God, you're going to be disciplined by God because every child needs to be disciplined.

59:40 None of us escape the discipline of God. At some point in my life and at some point in your life, God is going to ordain and orchestrate you to go through a situation you don't want to go through so God can develop you and discipline you. Let me say it again. at some point in my life and at some point in your life God is going to ordain and orchestrate a situation you don't want to go through that is meant to develop you and discipline you. One more time at some point in my life and at some point in your life God is going to ordain a situation you don't want to go through so that God can develop you and discipline because whomever the Lord uses the Lord chastises.

1:00:29 Nobody escapes the discipline of the Lord. All you got to do is read through scripture, and you'll find out that just about everybody God uses, God had to discipline. When Moses hit that rock, God had to discipline him. When King Saul kept disobeying, God had to discipline him. When Peter tried to rebuke Jesus from going to the cross, he had to be disciplined. When Miriam opened up her mouth against Moses, she had to be disciplined. When Zechariah spoke ill of God's ability to get Elizabeth pregnant, he had to be disciplined. When Martha kept doing the wrong thing, she was disciplined. When Jonah ran in the wrong direction, he was disciplined. When David committed adultery at Bathsheba, she was disciplined. When the children of Israel didn't want to go into the promised land, they were disciplined. When Uzzah reached out and touched the Ark of the Covenant, he was disciplined. When Gehazi took money from Balaam, he was disciplined.

1:01:23 That you cannot be used by God and not be disciplined by God because in every life, God will discipline you. And let me tell you why it's inevitable. Come here, come here, come here. Because you and I are sinners. I ain't talking about one-time sinners.

1:01:53 I'm talking about repeat offenders. I ain't talking about new sinners. I'm talking about habitual sinners. You and I are experimental sinners. We find new sin to experiment with on a daily basis. The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And the Bible teaches us in 1 John, if you say you have no sin, you are a liar, and the truth of God is not within you. We all sin, and God has to discipline us because we sin. But God also disciplines us because God loves us. God loves you too much to leave you in sin. and God understands something that is lost in our contemporary world and that is that love doesn't just give you everything you want love doesn't just let you do anything love doesn't say yes to everything you ask for if you saw a child under your care with a fork in her hand about to stick it in an outlet that is not the time for you to say Emily put that down Thank you.

1:03:08 that's when you run, you holler, and you slap that hand and knock it out because love says I can't let you hurt yourself. Beloved, that's why God didn't give you everything you asked for. That's why God didn't open that door. That's why God brought it into that relationship. That's why God didn't promote you on that job. That's why God didn't let everybody like you because there's some things God knows is not good for you and God has to discipline you because it is inevitable. Not only is discipline of God inevitable, it is parental. Somebody say parental. Watch what the writer says. When God disciplines, God is doing it as a parent, not a judge. There's a difference between a judge and a parent.

1:04:06 A judge convicts. A parent corrects. A judge punishes based on what you've done. A parent disciplines based on who you can be. A judge wants to make sure that what you did, you get what you deserve. your parent wants to discipline you not based on your past but on your future of what you can be. And here is the major difference. A judge wants to make certain that the punishment fits the crime. A parent wants to make sure the discipline fits the child.

1:04:49 Put that sink in for a minute. When a judge punishes you she wants to make certain that the punishment fits the crime. But a good parent, when they discipline you, wants to make certain that the discipline fits the child. Hear me, beloved, if you're taking notes, this is what you ought to remember, that the discipline of the Lord is not about the severity of your sin, it's about the condition of your heart. The discipline of the Lord is not about the severity of the sin. It's about the condition of your heart. One more time, when God disciplines you, it's not in accordance to what you've done. It's in accordance to where your heart is. Can I give you Bible?

1:05:43 Look at the first two kings of Israel, David and Saul. Ding, Tom, both of them are jacked up. They both got problems after problems after problems. Let me tell you what Saul's problem was. Saul kept committing a sacrifice when he wasn't ordained to do it. David committed adultery, had a man killed. Okay, make sure you said that. Saul went to church and led praise and worship when he couldn't sing. David lusted after Bathsheba, committed adultery with her, and then had her husband set up to be killed.

1:06:26 And Saul's discipline was worse than David's. But what David does is worse than what Saul did. Why come God is more lenient with David than God is with Saul? Because David's heart was closer to the Lord. And when God wants to discipline you, God doesn't look at what the sin was. God looks at where your heart is. How much do you love the Lord? How much do you pray? How close are you to the Lord? How much do you want to do right with God? God. Which is why you see some folk fall far and some folk God deal gently with.

1:07:13 Because it's where your heart is. Let me fire my exit up. I want to let you all know I have disciplined my sons, but I've never beaten my sons. I have never taken a belt off and beat my children. A few reasons why. Number one, I was beaten. Where's Gen X at? Look here. We did not know time out. My mother beat me all the time. And I made a promise to the Lord, if you ever give me children, I swear I will never do to them what it was done to me. I don't beat my children. Number two, I made a vow to the Lord that I would never touch my children in anger. That if I'm angry, I'm going to step away.

1:08:08 The only time I deal with my children is out of love. Even if I'm disappointed, it's going to be in love. I refuse to put my hands on my children in anger. Number three, the reason I don't beat them is because I did what every parent ought to do early in your child's life. Early in your child's life, there ought to be a moment when your child looks at you and thinks you're crazy. At some moment, they got to think something is wrong with you. And the minute you establish your crazy potential, you have established yourself as an authoritarian figure in their life. But more than that, I believe in the lowest form of discipline for the highest level of change. Please take note of that.

1:09:04 The lowest level of discipline that brings the highest level of change. That if a talk will work, a talk is all we're going to do. So Rhonda, when my son was young, when Deuce was young, I could look at Deuce and say I'm disappointed in you. And he'd break down crying. That's all it took. I'm disappointed. Now Cooper?

1:09:34 How many of y'all know that second one? That second one? I could look at Cooper and say I'm disappointed in you and he'd look back and go we good? That's it? Can I go now? I mean, you know. So I had to use a different level with him, but I still believe in the lowest level. Let me tell you how I know God disciplines us as a parent. Because God doesn't destroy you every time you mess up. God doesn't use everything at God's disposal to get you right. God starts with the lowest level of discipline necessary to change your heart. God's discipline is progressive. Let me share with you how God disciplines us. Write these down, if you will. It starts off with a word. Before you even do it, God will put something in your heart and your mind and let you know you shouldn't do that.

1:10:32 If the word doesn't work, then comes the wait, W-E-I-G-H-T. And that's when you start to feel the guilt and the shame for what you've done, and you weigh it heavy in your spirit. It keeps you up at night knowing that you've been wrong. After the wait comes the warning That's that shot across the bow when something almost happened but didn't And God let you know that if you keep doing this something bad is going to happen That's the warning When the warning doesn't work now comes the hard work Because now you're starting to struggle in areas of your life Because of the thing you know you should no longer be doing And God is allowing you to struggle with it And after the warning comes the weariness. The weariness is when you start to suffer loss because you won't change. Financial loss.

1:11:25 Reputational loss. Relational loss. Loss on your job. When that doesn't work, God then affects your witness. God will let it creep out to a few folk. Some folk will discernment, will know what you're doing. It's no longer hidden. It's no longer secret. And now God is trying to change you because you know people know what you're up to. If it's not that, then come the wounds. When what you're doing now starts to hurt the people around you. And God is praying and hoping that you seeing what you're doing hurting your children and your family and your marriage will cause you to change. After the wounds come the woes. And that's when it starts affecting you physically. when your body starts to pay a price for the sin you won't change. And then comes the wreckage when you hit rock bottom and lose everything.

1:12:21 But God doesn't start with the wreckage. God starts with the word. And then God moves on to the wait and then to the warning and then to the work and then to the weariness and then to the witness and then to the wounds and then to the woes. God is trying to use the lowest level of discipline necessary to bring the highest level of change. And I'm so grateful that we serve a God who does not just destroy us the minute we do what we know we should not do. A God who is patient in his discipline.

1:12:52 Because it's inevitable, it's parental, but it's transformational. Let me let you go right here that whenever God disciplines you, God says something good is going to come out of this. I'm doing this for your good. I'm doing this so you can bear some fruit. I'm doing this so you can participate in my righteousness. I'm doing this because there's a better you than the you you are right now. And so I'm going to take you offline and I'm going to take you behind the door and I'm going to let some stuff happen so I can change you and mold you and fix you to be better than you are right now. And there's somebody in this space today, you know, you ain't always been the you you are right now. But when God took you through that thing, God disciplined you and corrected you. Is there anybody here who's honest enough to admit I haven't always been who you see right now, but God took me through some things and God changed me?

1:13:50 I was in Vegas at the hotel, my favorite hotel, and they were doing some construction that caused me to have to walk the long way around and get to the elevator. And every time I walked by the construction, I saw a sign that I want to share with you. It said, please pardon our dust. You're going to love us when we're done.

1:14:16 Please pardon what's happening right now. you're going to love it on the other side please be patient with me while God is working on me and chastening me and disciplining me but when God gets through with me when God brings me out when God finishes God's work I will be better than I am right now I came by to encourage someone that when God is disciplining you just hold on because on the other side And God is so good that even when you've messed up, God will hold what God has in store for you.

1:14:57 Here's what I want to share with you as I leave. God has a plan to bless you. God has something in store for you that you will not die until you walk in it. I wish I had some folk that believe that, that God has something in store for me, And I will not die until I walk in everything that God has prepared and assigned for me to live in. I refuse to die before I get here. And in order to get you there, God is giving you a gift. Proverbs teaches us that God gives us a gift that makes room for us. So God gives you a gift that's meant to take you into a space. The problem is not the space. The problem is not the gift. The problem is your character.

1:15:46 God says, you've got to change your character. Because gift without character leads to corruption. gift without integrity leads to disgrace gift without discipline will affect your witness so god says i got to discipline your character and grow you but until then i'll hold the gift and i'll hold the space um i uh when the boys were young i went to do a father-son shoot a photo shoot with the boys. And so I ordered them matching outfits, because back then they would wear that. And when I ordered it, I made the mistake of ordering both the same size. So Deuce is much bigger than Cooper at that time. And so this outfit comes that Cooper can't wear for the photo shoot.

1:16:45 And my first thought is just send it back, just cancel it. But then I heard the Holy Spirit say, no, don't, don't send it back, hang it up. Don't cancel it. Hang it up. You got it, but you look slow. You don't send it back. You hang it up.

1:17:08 Because in time, he's going to grow into it. That's the way God deals with us. that God doesn't cancel God's plan for you. God just hangs it up. And God says, now I'm going to grow you to the place where you can put this gift on appropriately. I'm going to grow you to the place where you can walk in that room and not be changed.

1:17:37 So today, as you leave church today, here's the question I want you to ask. When you're going through things in life, the question is not why this is happening. Not what did I do? The question is what is God trying to do in this? How is God trying to grow you? How is God trying to change you? How is God disciplining you? Lord we open this moment of worship and sermon with a song that says you're the lover of my soul remind us now Lord that whomever you love you chasten you discipline you correct but it's always for our good that we may participate in your holiness and bear fruit in our lives thank you God that you love me too much to leave me in sin.

1:18:34 Now, God, speak to my heart today about what you're doing in me that I might endure the discipline of the Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. It's right at 9 o'clock. As we get ready to dismiss, do me a few favors. Number one, if you're here today and you desire to know more about God's amazing love for you, if you're ready to say yes to Jesus Christ or to come back to the Lord or to finally join this church family. Immediately after our benediction, there are going to be some deacons at the altar, some sisters and brothers with name tags on. Tap one of them on the shoulder. Let them know today you want to give your life to the Lord. Today you want to join the Alpha Street Baptist Church family. And do me a favor. As you go out and enjoy the beauty of this day that God has given, don't forget to ask God what God requires of you, of your tithe and your offering, that we might continue to do the good work God has called us to do as a church family.

1:19:30 We prepare to leave this place as we always do on our feet in doxology and benediction. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.